Billboard Lists
50 Greatest Rappers of All Time (40-31 Revealed)
UPDATE: The rollout of Billboard/Vibe’s Top 50 Greatest Rappers of All Time continues with this week’s reveal of the rappers ranked 40- 31. The Greatest of All Time, aka the GOAT. That’s a distinguished — and also contentious — honor when it comes to ranking who or what is the ultimate best, whether you’re talking films, TV shows, restaurants or any other subject. In early 2023, Billboard/Vibe is ranking the Top 50 Greatest Rappers of All Time as part of our salute to this year’s golden anniversary of hip-hop. (The genre dates back to 1973, when DJ Kool Herc first set up his two turntables to rock a Bronx party.) The rollout began with the Jan. 11 reveal of the rappers ranked 50-41. Then each succeeding week, 10 more rappers will be revealed, with the final top 10 being announced during th...
Jeff Beck’s 10 Best Songs: With Yardbirds, Solo & Beyond
You’re likely to find Jeff Beck‘s face on any Mount Rushmore of guitarists — and maybe of musicians, period. His musical praises are being sung worldwide since his shocking death Wednesday (Jan. 11) from bacterial meningitis at age 78. And rest assured that everything being said about the seven-time Grammy winner and two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee is true. And maybe even understated. While his skills are unquestionably worth celebrating, those discussions sometimes obscure the fact that Beck’s greatest gift was in service to the songs he played. Whether with the Yardbirds or the various incarnations of his own band, or with a wide variety of collaborators, Beck elevated his songs with purposeful and deliberate choices — of notes, riffs, phrasings — that raised them to the pro...
The 100 Greatest Karaoke Songs of All Time: Staff List
As much as we here at Billboard missed live music in the thick of the pandemic, another cultural loss was just as devastating to our day-to-day lives: the shutdown of karaoke. Concerts were how we connected best with our favorite artists, but karaoke is how we really bonded with our favorite songs. Whether at a solo mic on stage in a strange and sparsely populated bar or packed in a room with a dozen of our closest and most animated friends, karaoke allowed us pop music lovers the opportunity to not just celebrate those tunes but to crawl inside them, to become an essential part of them. Throw in a cheaply made non-sequitur music video, a pitcher of domestic beer and a tambourine, and any random Thursday night downtown could turn into the most transcendent musical experience of your entire...
Top 50 Dance Remixes of Classic Hits
Sometimes, you just want to listen to a familiar classic you already know all the words to — probably because your parents played it all the time when you were young. Other times, you want to bump a track with a beat you can feel in your rib cage, something that wouldn’t be out of place on the club floor or in a desert festival mosh pit. Every once in a while, you want to do both at the exact same time. If that description fits you, you’ve come to the right place. Countless DJs and producers of the 21st century have combined the nostalgic power of oldies with the liberating boom of 808 drums, sharing their creations with millions of listeners on YouTube and SoundCloud. The musical magic of old-meets-new has become such a phenomenon that sometimes, legendary artists who dominated radio year...
Kelly Clarkson’s 25 Best Duets
Kelly Clarkson continues to flex her muscle as a multi-hyphenate, but as her resume expands, her passion for music remains at the forefront. The singer first gained notoriety after winning season 1 of American Idol in 2002. Practically overnight, the 20-year-old Texas native became a household name, with her debut single, “A Moment Like This,” landing atop the Billboard Hot 100 and her first album, Thankful, topping the Billboard 200. With Hot 100 top 10s such as “Since U Been Gone,” “Because of You” and “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)” (a three-week No. 1) under her belt, Clarkson has since branched out, hosting her own smash hit talk show and serving as a coach on The Voice. Her flawless vocals and credibility as an artist have allowed her to team up with fellow singers on a slew of ja...
The 25 Best Pride Songs of 2022 (So Far): Staff Picks
2022 has already proven to be a year in which popular, newly-released singles are fewer and further between, especially when it comes to the Billboard Hot 100. But that doesn’t mean there haven’t been plenty of incredible new songs to jam out to this year. That goes double for LGBTQ artists — even just halfway through the year, dozens of queer and trans stars have already released career-defining songs, with some even upending their entire public personas in favor of releasing something that is honest about their sexualities. Exceptionalism in queer art has also spanned genres; pop, R&B, rock, folk, and even some country has seen major singles by queer artists hit the market in 2022. So, to celebrate the work these artists put into their songs this year, check out Billboard’s...
Marianne Faithfull Turns 75: Celebrate With Her 10 Best Songs (Critic’s Picks)
Marianne Faithfull debuted in 1964 as one of the more promising voices of the British Invasion. The Rolling Stones’ manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, discovered her, which lead to Mick Jagger (eventually her romantic partner) and Keith Richards co-penning her debut single “As Tears Go By.” Musically, however, she was a far cry from the Stones, possessing an effortlessly quivering soprano that imbued her string-laden baroque pop with a nebulous, folky mysticism. Explore See latest videos, charts and news In the late ’60s, her commercial output came to a virtual stop. The next decade would see laryngitis, drug abuse and depression take their toll on the nascent talent. After a well-documented rough patch, she returned with the most thematically weighty and artistically influential material of her...
25 Best K-Pop Songs of 2021: Critics’ Picks
K-pop expanded its perimeters and scope this year while simultaneously infusing itself into today’s trends and sounds in creative ways. While many acts raised their international profiles with releases that found bigger audiences than ever, the songs that truly soared pushed the limits to represent more than just the stars singing them. While it’d be impossible to capture the brilliance of the K-pop industry in one year-end list, these songs give a snapshot of some of the best that the scene had to offer in a year that was challenging for many but offered inspiration in other ways—including from these 25 songs.
Mike Nesmith’s 12 Best Songwriting Credits: The Monkees, Stone Poneys & Beyond
If you want someone to extol the late Mike Nesmith’s virtues as a songwriter, you don’t have to look much further than the man who’s been standing beside him onstage for many of the past five and a half decades. “Nes is a great songwriter, always has been,” says Monkees mate Micky Dolenz, who most recently toured with Nesmith as The Monkees Present the Mike & Micky Show and who earlier this year released the album Dolenz Sings Nesmith. “You’ve got to credit him; He was writing incredible stuff from the get-go. He was way before some of the other country electric rock entities. He was way ahead of them in that kind of sound. He was doing that stuff in the ’60s, and I don’t think he’s ever gotten as much credit as he should as a singer-songwriter.” Explore See latest videos, charts and n...
Olivia Rodrigo, Lil Nas X, Adele & More: What’s Your Favorite Album of 2021? Vote!
While 2021 has arguably been much better than its thou-that-shall-not-be-named predecessor, the year is thankfully coming to an end. In between continued Zoom meetings, livestreamed concerts and a slight semblance of pre-pandemic life, the music of the year allowed even the most cold-hearted of pessimists to have something to look forward to — but which album helped you through 2021 the most? Olivia Rodrigo’s debut album, Sour, was for anyone who knows the sting of heartbreak. Lil Nas X fully blossomed from his “Old Town Road” beginnings into an out and proud artist unafraid to share his most vulnerable moments on Montero. Taylor Swift proved that lightning can indeed strike in the same place twice — and that the general public will let a 10-minute song reach No. 1 on the Billboard Ho...
The 100 Best Christmas Songs of All Time: Staff List
There’s a reason that listeners seem to get more anxious every year for the Christmas music season to start: Nothing else feels quite like it. The things that make Christmas songs great — whether carols, old pop standards or newer enduring hits — are most of the same things that make pop great in general: emotional connection, universal relatability, unshakeable catchiness. But Christmas music has a wavelength entirely its own, shared by an overwhelming majority of its most recognizable classics: a sort of sublime yearning that’s at once profoundly saddening and deeply comforting. It evokes a visceral, nearly oppressive sentimentality, one fortified and strengthened by a lifetime’s worth of associated holiday memories — personal, familial, romantic, nostalgic. It’s music for the most wonde...
